London, Nov 11 (ANI): One of Britain's largest accountancy firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has launched an investigation after male staff at one of its branches in Ireland were found circulating emails rating the attractiveness of their female colleagues.

The emails, which were sent between up to 17 male staff at PwC's Dublin office, included pictures of 13 women who had recently joined the company.

In the emails the male employees were asked to nominate their "top ten" women based on looks.

The women, whose pictures were accompanied by their names and departments, all recently joined the accountancy firm as trainee accountants or "associates".

After being sent amongst PwC staff the emails were forwarded on to workers at other businesses and went "viral" across the internet.

It is thought that the source of the original email, which had a subject line of "this would be my shortlist for the top 10", has been traced.

One reply read: "Great work ... have reservations about the last one getting in."

The company was alerted to the emails by the Irish Independent newspaper and launched an investigation.

"We are taking this matter extremely seriously and are launching a full investigation. We will take all necessary steps and actions in line with our firm's polices and procedures," the Telegraph quoted Carmel O'Connor, PwC's human resources partner, as telling the paper.

She added that the company had not yet contacted the men involved and refused to say whether they would be sacked. (ANI)